Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Tidbits from Atlanta

Next post will the last on our Atlanta visit.It will be about our tour of CNN
Headquarters.I think I have bored you
all enough.However, I have a few tidbits to share from our visit to Atlanta.

We stayed at this name brand hotel.They have a nice customer service.If you are going to a touristy place (like
CNN Headquarters), the hotel van will drop you.When you are ready to return to the Hotel, call them and the van will
come and pick you up.One morning we
were boarding the van to go some place.The driver is a black gentleman.My wife (LG) boarded the van first and she was going towards the back
seats.I asked her to sit in the front
seat.The driver heard this.He told my wife:

Please sit in the
front madam. Those days are OVER.

He was very emotional and the way he said “OVER” was louder
and more pronounced.(Remember Rosa
Parks' story? She refused to sit in the back of the bus in South when non-whites
were not allowed to sit in the front seats.) (I had a chuckle.)

Remember on the last day we were held up in our hotel room
and could not go anywhere because of heavy snow and ice storm!That evening we went to the hotel lounge to have a
drink.How long we can stay in the hotel
room?(We later found out that the
Police Officers working in that area could not go home due to heavy snow.They were put up in our hotel with an
instruction that they are on 24 hour duty.)

We entered the lounge and sat in a corner.We saw about 10 Police Officers nearer to our
table and drinking orange juice.I
originally that it was vodka and orange juice.I had an eye contact with one of the officers.He smiled.That is enough for an extreme extrovert like me.I smiled back.And, I said: Hey guys, this is the safest
place in Atlanta
now.They had a question mark in their
faces.I said I am glad Atlanta’s finest is here to protect us. Full
of smiles all over.

Then I offered to buy them a beer.One of the officers said: “Thank you
sir.But we are on duty now.May be some other time.”I replied: Yeah sure.

I want to end this post with a photo.So here is a photo of Georgia Dome, the home
of the Atlanta Braves, a professional American Football team in Atlanta, Georgia.I know, unless you are a die hard American
Football fan, you won’t give a damn about this.Seating capacity: 74,228. This is the largest indoor sporting facility in the United States.

It feels good when you come across people dedicated to their duty, I wonder how the scene would look like if it were Indian police instead. The dome must be fascinating structure, but cannot hope for bad weather to help cover-up bad performance in that case :P

I am really loving this series SG since I have never been to Atlanta. Thanks for the virtual tour. I am amazed at what the driver said. Makes you think how it was in those days. Largest indoor sporting facility? great. I had no idea there was so much to see and do in Atlanta.

Such lovely tidbits, I really enjoyed reading them. The America of the past is no longer there atleast in many parts, they had to change, and now we have so many people from so many countries proudly making a living there.

You were treated like royalty there with the Police Protection and all :-). I remember once I met with an accident and the Police Officer in charge of that junction helped me with my scooty and reprimanded the other person who had come on the wrong side. The Police Officer also waited till my parents came and refused to take money and even refused when my dad offered to buy lunch saying he was on duty. This happened in Chennai.